


Freedom

by Captain_Revo



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Gen, Maquis, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2019-08-23
Packaged: 2020-09-19 09:30:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20328922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Captain_Revo/pseuds/Captain_Revo
Summary: Ro Laren and Kalita of the Maquis attempt to rescue Thomas Riker from a Cardassian prison.





	Freedom

**Author's Note:**

> Minor Character Death

Ro laren sat in her Maquis Fighter and watched the viewscreen intently, filled with both rage and helplessness at what she was hearing. The image of Gul Dukat on the screen made her feel sick looking at the repulsive creature. He was the embodiment of cardassian smugness and cruelty. All that her people had suffered, the strides and progress Bajor had made rebuilding from the occupation had been reduced to ash. They were now once again occupied by the Cardassians, even if not in name. Technically Bajor were allies of the Dominion, and Cardassia was just a member of it, but the reality felt very different. She knew this was a temporary arrangement, and once the Dominion had won the war, Bajoran freedoms would be once again be stripped away, and likely so would the planet's resources.

"The war with the Federation/Klingon alliance will soon be won," boasted Dukat, "Cardassian colonies on the Federation border that were lost during the previous administrations reckless treaty are being liberated as I speak. The Maquis rebels have been crushed, and those few remaining terrorists are being rounded up to face justice. Very soon thousands of Dominion ships will join the fight, and we will be masters and rulers of the Alpha Quadrant, just as I promised. Cardassia will be made whole again."

"I don't know why you watch that propaganda," said Kalita, switching off the live transmission while shaking her head.

It keeps me focused," replied Ro. In truth, she wasn't sure why she watched it. Self punishment perhaps? She also wasn't sure it was propaganda either, since joining the Dominion the Cardassian Union's fortunes had changed dramatically, and from what she has seen they were indeed winning this war as he claimed.

Their fighter was stationed in low orbit of the Avenal System, deep inside Cardassian space, on the far side of the fourth planet. Avenal IV had a labour camp and their objective was inside.

"For the record," Kalita began, "this plan is insane."

Ro turned her head to look at her, "It's your plan!"

"I know, but it looked a lot easier on paper," she replied, her eyes fixed on keeping their distance from the sentry satellites that orbited the planet. They had been supplied the codes by a yridian trader that should allow their ship to go undetected, but it didn't hurt to be cautious this far into enemy territory.

"If they change the codes while we're in orbit, we'll be in serious trouble," she added.

"Don't worry, they haven't changed the codes in a week, they are not going to change them in the next hour. We'll get Tom out," said Ro, trying to sound confident.

Thomas Riker, the transporter clone of William Riker, had been captured by the Cardassians after he stole the Defiant to expose a massive military build up in the Orios System nearly three years ago. The operation had been a disaster. Not only had Tom been sent to this labour camp for the rest of his life, but his entire crew, including Kalita, had been arrested by Starfleet. To make matters worse the fleet buildup had nothing to do with attacking the colonies in the Demilitarised Zone as feared. Kalita had only managed to escape Federation custody by chance when a Jem'Hadar strike wing had attacked the facility she was being held at. She had stolen a shuttle, and headed back to Maquis territory, or what was left of it. Fortunately for her the Jem'Hadar had little interest in one lone shuttle at the time.

Ro had been on a deep recon mission when the Jem'Hadar had swept through the badlands and DMZ colonies and avoided the slaughter that followed. She had kept an eye on the usual hideouts to see if any survivors were left or returned, but none did. She had found Kalita's shuttle more by luck than anything on a final sweep of the area three weeks ago. The red headed human woman had been one of the first people she meet when she joined the Maquis, although at the time she was working on orders from Starfleet in infiltrate them, but once she saw their cause she knew which side she had to take. It had been the hardest decision of her life, and not one that had gone well for her in the intervening years.

She had lost so many friends and colleagues over the last four years. Macias, the elderly bajoran man who recruited her, murdered by cardassian infiltrators, Cal Hudson and Michael Eddington, the Starfleet officers both killed defending civilians, Chakotay and B'Elanna whom she had met at the academy years ago and reconnected with briefly before their ship and crew had been lost in the badlands. She could still remember an intercepted communication from Gul Evek to Central Command, bragging that he had personally destroyed it. 

While she had never actually met Tomas Riker, she felt like he too was someone she knew from her time serving with Will, and felt desperately sorry for his fate. There was something she found appealing about a version of Riker that was rebellious and less clean cut. Despite all her personal losses, the Maquis had been gaining momentum until the Dominion crushed the life out of the rebellion. Seeing Kalita again had been the best thing, perhaps the only good thing, to happen to her in the last twelve months. Kalita had convinced her that rescuing Tom was the only mission they had left. The only chance they had to make any kind of a difference now.

"Maybe the Prophets of yours will protect us?" suggest Kalita.

Ro scoffed, "They are not my Prophets."

"Oh, I forget, you don't believe in them, do you?"

"I believe in them just fine," she said, sharply, "I just don't think of them as gods, or that they have any interest in our lives."

"I though the discovery of the wormhole would have changed your mind over time."

She had never put much truck in her fellow Bajoran's spiritual beliefs. When the wormhole was discovered, many chose to believe that it was the Celestial Temple where the Prophets lived, but through her scepticism and her experiences aboard the _Enterprise_ she had chosen to see them as Starfleet did, as non-corporeal aliens with little interest in Bajor. She saw no evidence to the contrary. 

"Maybe they are gods, maybe when I die they are going to be very disappointed in me. I don't know. What I do know is they didn't do anything to stop the occupation. They haven't done anything to protect any of the people I love," the words were starting to catch in her throat, "They haven't done anything to stop the Dominion coming through that wormhole. They haven't done anything for me, and I don't think they are going to swoop the rescue now, so if you're expecting divine intervention I'm afraid you are on the wrong ship."

Kalita pondered her words for a moment, "Nothing? You're still alive aren't you? That's more than can be said for many of us."

She turned to her again, and very sarcastically said "What are you a Vedek now?"

She chuckled at the thought of her in Vedek robes, "No, just trying to get all the help I can."

The console made a beeping sound. Ro sighed, "Well, they are definitely not listening as I have a Galor class cruiser entering the system."

"Damn it," her friend replied, "powering down all systems."

The raider went dead in space except for minimal gravity and life support. If they were spotted by the cruiser then they would never outrun it in the old bucket of bolts they called a ship. Most of the Maquis ships were little more than modified shuttles, fighters, and support ships. Their raider was old even compared to the others. The area inside was approximately 5 meters long divided into a fore and aft compartment, and could just about mange warp eight on a good day.

Kalita rubbed her brow wondering what had she done to deserve this life. She had grown up as Federation citizen enjoying all the comforts she could desire. She had even managed to avoid the border skirmishes with the Cardassians that lead to the peace treaty and the revised territory. The last 5 years had been difficult for her but she had known another way of living.

Experience had made Ro more pragmatic. She was used to having to fight for everything ever since she was a child. Nothing came easily for her so why would this mission be any different? Her time aboard the _Enterprise_ was filled with danger and unbelievable events that even for the life on a starship was excessive. That crew had a way of finding trouble. Hardly a day had done by in her life when he life was not in some level of jeopardy. 

They waited an hour for the cruiser to enter orbit, conduct its business, then leave. There was a low level scattering field around the camp. It wasn't enough to block life signs but getting a lock was impossible. Maybe if Data or La Forge was here they could do it, but Ro didn't have that level of expertise. Attacking the camp with the ship was risky. The trader didn't know if there were any air defences, besides they didn't want to accidentally kill any prisoners. They would have to do this the old fashioned way, and count themselves lucky the Cardassians didn't consider this camp a high security priority and defences were relatively light.

"The cruiser is out of range, and it should be dark at the camp site. If we are going to do this then now is as good a time as any," said Kalita.

Ro nodded, and activated the autopilot. "Let's hope no one sees the ship while we're down there."

They both grabbed weapons, Ro picked up a scanner, and Kalita a pair of night vision viewers, and moved to the transporter pad in the aft section of the ship. 

"Ready?" asked her human companion.

Ro looked at her, her eye weary, "Just one more thing. We can not be captured, any any circumstances. You do not want to be tortured by cardassians. If they catch us we have-"

"I understand," she interrupted, and activated the transporter via a panel on the side wall.

A shimmer of light engulfed them and the interior of the raider melted away to be replaced by darkness. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust to their surroundings. A feint light could be seen below them in the distance from the camp. They were standing on a small cliff edge overlooking the site. The air was damp and cool, the sounds of insects could be heard around them. A trickle of water from a small river cascaded down the southern side of the cliff. Kalita held up her night vision viewers and surveyed the camp. A path lead down the rocks to a simple wired mesh gate. The facility itself was fairly primitive too. A roughly square area approximately one hundred metres each side, and there were four towers raising high out of the ground, each with a platform at the top. A guard with a disrupter turret occupied each platform. A 3 metre high wall was erected between each post.

"Two of the guards appear to be asleep, and -Oh oh," 

"What is it?" whispered Ro.

"They have Jem'Hadar patrolling the outside perimeter," she replied, the air deflating from her.

Cardassians men were often surprising easy to get past. Their massive ego meant they wouldn't take two women seriously as a threat. They could virtually walk right up to them then bribe them, seduce them, of just plain knock them out, but neither of them fancied going up against a species that was rumoured to be more vicious and skilled at fighting than even the klingons.

Ro whipped out her pocket scanner and tried to find any weakness in the defence. "Hmm, there's a small sewer pipe that runs from under the camp into a stream on the north side. It won't be pleasant, but I think we can get in through there."

"Great, wading through cardassian shit. Everything is going to plan."

They timed their descent down the path when the guards were out of sight. Even in the near darkness they could not account for how well the Jam'Hadar might be able to see. They made their way round to the north, hugging the wall as to not be seen by the tower guard. They made it to the sewer grate with no trouble. Complacency by the guards that no one was going to try to liberate a handful of unimportant prisoners in the middle of a war, was their greatest asset.

She phased off the welding around the grate and they crawled into the tunnel. It smelt beyond awful, and was barely wide enough to fit through. Ro squeezed in first followed by her companion. They crawled for what was fifty metres but felt like five hundred, and both women were nearly sick by the time they made it to the other side, but the pipe opened up to a larger room directly below the centre of the camp. Ro once again took her phaser and carefully damaged the hinges, but left one in place. She lifted Kalita up and she was able to remove the small soakaway cover. The human peaked over the edge to check the coast was clear, while her bajoran companion tried to keep her steady. When she was sure the coast was clear she signalled to Ro who pushed her up as hard as she could until she was able to clamber up herself. She plunged down her hand to be offered up. Ro jumped up and grabbed it and Kalita pulled her up with a heave. They quickly ran to a side building before regaining their breath and composure. 

Kalita breathed shallowly, trying not to smell the rank sludge over her body, "Okay, now we just have to find him."

"Now that we are inside it shouldn't be too difficult," she said checking her scanner. I read two humans; one male, one female. It has to be him." _'If he's still alive.'_

The two women made their way around the complex, keeping low and darting in and out between buildings, until they came to a small cabin. Ro gently opened the door and walked in. Across the room was sat a man on the edge of a bed, in ripped brown clothing. His hair was long, and his beard was unkempt with tufts of grey. Kalita followed after her in and the sight of the dishevelled, underweight man stopped her in her tracks. 

"Tom!" she cried a little too loudly before drawing a breath. "Quickly, we don't have much time."

Tom looked up at her in disbelief and total joy, "Kalita? What the hell are you doing here?"

"We're opening a casino, Tom, what's it look like we're doing. We're getting you out of here."

He looked at Ro who was just starting at him, her mouth wide open.

"Do I know you?" asked Tom.

"Yes, no, it's... complicated." she replied, awkwardly, trying to regain her composure. She had heard the stories of the clone of Will Riker but to actually see his face stunned her. 

"Sounds fascinating," came the dry response.

"I suggest we save this for a later time. Can you walk?" Kalita asked.

"If it involves walking out of here, then you bet I can," she smelt the air and nearly gagged, "What is that smell?"

Ro looked apologetic, "Yeah, sorry that's us. There's a sewer entrance in the middle of the courtyard. It's a bit of a squeeze and you won't like what's in there, but it leads to the outside."

"I'll live," he replied, "What about the others? There's two dozen people here. We-"

Ro interrupted, "I'm sorry but they are on their own. Our ship doesn't have the room, and we don't have the means to liberate an entire camp." 

She wanted to save all of them, and it wasn't very heroic only coming for one person and letting the others rot, but she never considered herself a hero. She could only do what she could do.

"You came all this way, just for me? I thought you were smarter than that, Kalita," he said, disapprovingly. 

"So did I, but here we are. Now we can debate this later."

They crept back out of the building. A search light from one of the towers was scanning the far side of the camp like a predator searching for its pray. There was no activity around them, so they made their way back to the sewer without incident. They re-crawled through the waste to the outside. The second trip was no less horrific than the first. They made their way outside the camp and stuck close to the walls as before. When they were round the corner they could see no guards. Kalita tried to use her night vision equipment but the sewer filth had damaged it.

"We're going to have to chance it."

They made a break for the path back up to the cliff edge, hoping they would not be spotted. They were half way to safety when Tom stumbled on the rocky path in the dark. A blast of blue energy plasma lit up the night sky as it smashed into a tree setting it ablaze. A second blast landed at their feet sending rock and dirt into the air. The Jem'Hadar had spotted their escape and were in pursuit. Ro and Kalita returned haphazard shots as they tried to run away while firing behind them. Kalita was truck twice in the back and shoulder forcing her to the ground. Tom helped the stricken women to her feet and they both crept further up the hill, as Ro spun round and laid down covering fire while backing away.

"They're gaining on us," shouted Tom.

"Leave me, I'll hold them off," shouted Kalita through the searing pain.

"I wont abandon you," Tom replied.

"Their weapons... have an anti coagulant.... I'm... I'm dead already. Go... Go!"

Ro grabbed at Tom arms and pulled him further up the path. He was resistant to leave her, trying to hold her ground. Kalita screamed to run as she continued to lay down covering fire. She managed to hit one of the Jem'hadar. The Second fired a shot that whistled past her head. 

"Tom, we have to go or we're all dead," screamed Ro. He looked at her, reluctantly nodded and clambered up the hill. She followed him up. 

"We're out of the fields range." Ro shouted, taping her communicator to signal the ships auto transport recall. The two people dissipated into matter and energy as the transporter broke down their atoms. The last thing they saw was the Jem'Hadar closing on her position. A flurry of weapons fire struck their defender in the chest before everything faded into nothing, being replaced with the cold inside of the ship. Ro ran to the pilots seat and fired up the engines. The raider broke orbit and entered warp. Tom staggered round, through malnutrition and shock.

"This is my fault. That stupid mission caused all of this." he said, as he stumbled into the front section and crashed onto the co-pilots seat.

Ro looked at the broken man. All he had endured only to watch a fiend die. Kalita was one of the bravest souls she had ever met, yet she felt nothing in the moment. Was she in shock, or just so desensitised to losing people that it no longer mattered? Just another body left in Ro Laren's wake.

"You can't think that way, we all knew the risks. We all chose this life," she told him.

"We? I don't even know who you are," he replied, gesturing to her.

"I'm Ro Laren, I used to serve with your... with Will."

"I see." he said. He was silent for a time, lost in his own thoughts. Eventually he asked, "Were you two friends or something?"

"Not really. Couldn't stand him half the time."

He let out an abrupt snort, "I know the feeling. So why rescue me?"

Now it was her turn to be quiet for a while. She hadn't really thought about it. Why had she risked her life to save a stranger?

"Because Kalita asked me, and because I had nowhere else to be, and... because I needed to fight back even if it was in some small way, and from what I heard you sound a lot like me."

"Oh?"

"Life didn't hand us any breaks, we made some bad decisions, and trouble always seems to find us. Maybe I thought you needed a break this time."

"Whatever your reasons I'm grateful," rubbing his had across the side of his face, "So what now? We do our duty, go rejoin Starfleet, fight the Dominion, avenge our fallen comrades?" he asked, unsure if that even appealed to him. He was tired and there was no fight left in him. Ro could see it in his face, and to be honest she felt the same.

"No, we're done fighting, at least I am. Where does it say I have to scratch and claw my way through life forever? The galaxy will have to survive without us. We leave Cardassian space, leave Federation space, and make our own way now. If you're willing?" 

"After three years in a Cardassian prison, anything sounds good to me." 

She spontaneously lent in and hugged him.

"What was that for?" he said, confused by the affection from someone he had never met.

"No reason."

For the first time her future didn't seem scary, despite the dangers they still faced reaching safety. She had a purpose other than proving herself, or seeking revenge, or fighting wars. She had chosen to live her life. Ro Laren's personal war was over.


End file.
